Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
>Shimano stuff first started showing up in the US (and I presume Europe) in
>the 60's with Lark and Eagle lower end derailleurs.
You may call them "low end" but they shifted WAY better than anything else you could buy at the time, for any price.
In addition to super shifting, these derailers had a really cool feature that Shimano has since abandoned:
The cable anchor was on a spring loaded pivot (using the otherwise unused end of one of the other springs.) You could be stoppee in high gear and yank the shift lever to the low gear position. On any other derailer, this would bust the cable, but the Lark/Eagle would take it due to the spring loaded arm. Then, when you started to pedal, the derailer would downshift to the "pre-selected" gear.
This feature was particularly good for wheelie bikes that had big automotive-looking stick shift levers, but it worked with all sorts of bikes.
The Lark was rather heavy, due to its all-steel construction, but its shifting performance was years ahead of everybody else. The Eagle was the same derailer with an extra heavy-duty hanger and a built in bash guard. The Hurét Alvit was wimpy by comparison!
Sheldon "Used These On A Couple Of My Tandems For Quite A While" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
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